Intravenous (IV) fluid delivery systems are used to deliver fluid to a patient or to draw out fluid from a patient's body. A typical fluid delivery system includes a disposable portion attached to a non-disposable portion. In operation, fluid being delivered typically comes in contact with the disposable portion but is usually isolated from the non-disposable portion. Due to sterility and contamination concerns, the disposable portion is therefore typically discarded after use. On the other hand, since the non-disposable portion is generally fluidly isolated from the fluid being delivered through the system, it is therefore re-used for multiple fluid delivery operations. During a fluid delivery operation, fluid delivery parameters may be monitored using one or more sensors such as an air-in-line (AIL) sensor, a fluid pressure sensor, a fluid temperature sensor etc.
One operational issue of the sensors is that accuracy of measurement of fluid parameters may suffer because of the presence of an intervening isolating membrane. For example, a pressure sensor may produce inaccurate measurement results when an isolating membrane collapses due to negative fluid pressure. To overcome measurement inaccuracies caused by the isolating membrane, some prior art fluid delivery systems placed the sensor elements in contact with fluid being delivered. However, these systems require electrical wires running to the sensors and/or other electronics associated with the sensors to supply power. Due to the presence of electrical wires connecting the non-disposable portion to the sensor elements, such systems suffer from the drawback that accidental leakage from a sensor element could result in the fluid leaking along the electrical wires into the non-disposable portion, resulting in contamination and damage to the non-disposable portion. Furthermore, such placement of electrical wires in close proximity of fluids elevates the danger of accidental shocks to a patient connected to the fluid delivery system. Such shocks may be hazardous to the patients.
Hence, there are concerns regarding the current systems and methods for measuring fluid delivery parameters during fluid delivery by a fluid delivery system. These include, but are not necessarily limited to, accuracy of measurement and potential shock hazard.